Instances are on record of the Hoopoe having- been killed in several other of the English counties, 
particularly Cornwall, in North and South Wales, many parts of Scotland (from its most southern point 
to the Orkneys) ; and Thompson tells us that it occasionally appears in all parts of Ireland. 
As our opportunities of acquiring a knoAvledge of the habits of the bird in this country are but few, 
I shall now give some extracts from the writings of those who have seen the bird in India and China. 
“ The Hoopoe,” says Mr. Jerdon, “ is found in the Himalayas, in Northern India, in Lower Bengal, 
and in various parts of India as far as the Neilgherries. It extends to Nepaul, Assam, and perhaps to 
Upper Burmah. Mussulmen venerate the Hoopoe on account of their supposing it to have been a favourite 
bird of Solomon, who is said to have employed one as a messenger. It nestles in holes of walls, trees, 
&c., and lays several greenish-blue or bluish-white eggs. Pallas states that he once found a nest within 
the exposed and barely decomposed thorax of a human body, with seven young birds just ready to fly, which 
defended themselves with a most fetid fluid. Its voice is a pretty loud double or treble hoop, whence its 
name in most languages.” 
The breeding-habits of the Hoopoe are nearly identical with those of the Hornbills, the female never quit- 
ting her eggs, and being regularly fed by the male until her task is done. 
Dr. David Scott, in a letter to Mr. Blyth, says : — “ In 1865, two pairs of Hoopoes bred in my verandah ; 
after the hens began to sit, I never saw them outside the nest, but observed that the two males fed them 
regularly inside it. These birds were so tame and used to seeing me sitting in the verandah that my pre- 
sence never disturbed them in the least ; I was therefore quite familiar with them, and can assert most posi- 
tively that for a number of days I never saw the female of either pair out. I did not pay any attention to the 
circumstance of there being only two flying about until I observed both males going uj) to the nests with gnats 
in their bills, giving a call and then putting their heads inside for the hens to take the food. The feeding- 
times were about seven or eight o’clock in the morning and about four in the afternoon. I have seen the 
males getting the gnats &c. close under the very steps I was sitting on, and almost within two yards of my 
chair, then flying up, giving a call, and coming down again directly the food was taken.” — Ibis, 1866, p. 222. 
“ The flight of the Hoopoe,” says the late Captain Boys, “ resembles that of a Woodpecker, being per- 
formed in long undulating sweeps of five or six yards in extent. Its note resembles the syllables hoot, hoot, 
hoot, pronounced quickly. When searching on the ground for food the head is moved upwards and down- 
wards in a very rapid manner, much like the. tapping of a Woodpecker, and this action is continued till the 
entire bill is plunged in the earth to its base. Although its principal food is insects, I have occasionally 
found the crop filled with grain and seeds. On the I3th of March, 1842, I discovered at Kullianpore, in 
the hollow of a tree, a nest composed of two and three nearly fledged young.” 
Mr. Swinhoe informs us that the Hoopoe is “ a resident bird throughout China, from Canton to Tallen 
Bay. Builds in holes of walls and exposed Chinese coffins. The younglings call for food with a hissing- 
noise. The male during the breeding-season utters its song of love, ‘ Hoo-boo-hoo.’ To produce these 
notes the bird draws the air into its trachea, which puffs out on either side of the neck, taps the bill 
perpendicularly against a stone or the trunk of a tree, forces the breath down the tubular bill, and produces 
the sound. Feeds on worms, for which it stamps the ground with its feet, clutching- them by the head with 
its bill. It bruises the worm by beating it against the ground, and then, throwing up its head, jerks it down 
to its small mouth, and finally swallows it.” — Proc. Zool. Soc., 1863, p. 264. 
“ Few birds,” says the Rev. H. B. Tristram, “ have had more absurd fables attached to them than the 
Hoopoe. The Arabs have a superstitious reverence for it, and, believing it to possess marvellous medicinal 
qualities, they call it the ‘ Doctor bird.’ Its head is an indispensable ingredient in all their charms and 
in the practice of witchcraft. They also believe that it listens to whispers and betrays secrets, and, what 
is far more important, that it has the power of detecting water and of j)ointing- out hidden wells and springs. 
These attributes have doubtless been suggested by the quaint and grotesque movements of its head and tall 
crest, which it erects in walking, and then with a solemn portentous look it bends its head down till the bill 
touches the ground. The Greeks and Romans had equally absurd superstitions respecting the Hoopoe. It 
is considered a filthy feeder, chiefly from its habit of resorting- to dunghills, which it probes assiduously with 
its long- delicate bill in search of small insects. It was probably from its filthy habits aud resorts, as well 
as from the superstitious reverence in which it was held by the Egyptians, that it was especially enumerated 
among the unclean animals in the Mosaic Law .” — Natural History of the Bible. 
I have, somewhere met with the statement that if the Hoopoe be overshadowed by a Hawk or Falcon, it 
squats close to the ground, with its great wings and tail expanded to the utmost, and that the markings of the 
wings then assume the form of a series of black and white rings, in the midst of which the hill stands upright. 
I must not close this account without recording my obligations to E. Vernon-Harcourt, Esq., for two 
very fine specimens of this bird, killed by himself in the Island of Madeira. 
The Plate represents a male, a female, and a brood of young, of the natural size. 
